Podcast Episodes

The Tech-God Complex: Why We Need to be Skeptics

Episode 100

Silicon Valley's interest in AI is driven by more than just profit and innovation. There’s an unmistakable mystical quality to it as well. In this episode, Daniel and Aza sit down with humanist chapl…

Published on 11 months, 2 weeks ago

What Can We Do About Abusive Chatbots? With Meetali Jain and Camille Carlton

Episode 99

CW: This episode features discussion of suicide and sexual abuse. 

In the last episode, we had the journalist Laurie Segall on to talk about the tragic story of Sewell Setzer, a 14 year old boy who to…

Published on 11 months, 4 weeks ago

When the "Person" Abusing Your Child is a Chatbot: The Tragic Story of Sewell Setzer

Episode 98

Content Warning: This episode contains references to suicide, self-harm, and sexual abuse.

Megan Garcia lost her son Sewell to suicide after he was abused and manipulated by AI chatbots for months. No…

Published on 1 year ago

Is It AI? One Tool to Tell What’s Real with Truemedia.org CEO Oren Etzioni

Social media disinformation did enormous damage to our shared idea of reality. Now, the rise of generative AI has unleashed a flood of high-quality synthetic media into the digital ecosystem. As a re…

Published on 1 year ago

'A Turning Point in History': Yuval Noah Harari on AI’s Cultural Takeover

Episode 97

Historian Yuval Noah Harari says that we are at a critical turning point. One in which AI’s ability to generate cultural artifacts threatens humanity’s role as the shapers of history. History will st…

Published on 1 year ago

‘We Have to Get It Right’: Gary Marcus On Untamed AI

Episode 96

It’s a confusing moment in AI. Depending on who you ask, we’re either on the fast track to AI that’s smarter than most humans, or the technology is about to hit a wall. Gary Marcus is in the latter c…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

AI Is Moving Fast. We Need Laws that Will Too.

Episode 95

AI is moving fast. And as companies race to rollout newer, more capable models–with little regard for safety–the downstream risks of those models become harder and harder to counter. On this week’s e…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy (rerun)

[This episode originally aired on August 17, 2023] For all the talk about AI, we rarely hear about how it will change our relationships. As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, accla…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

Tech's Big Money Campaign is Getting Pushback with Margaret O'Mara and Brody Mullins

Episode 94

Today, the tech industry is  the second-biggest lobbying power in Washington, DC, but that wasn’t true as recently as ten years ago. How did we get to this moment? And where could we be going next? O…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

This Moment in AI: How We Got Here and Where We’re Going

It’s been a year and half since Tristan and Aza laid out their vision and concerns for the future of artificial intelligence in The AI Dilemma. In this Spotlight episode, the guys discuss what’s happ…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago